Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place
by Ebenbild
Summary: Fourteen years ago after the death of Lily and James Sirius had vowed to never let down another brother again. Now he finds documents that tell him that Regulus wasn't his only brother by blood. Will Sirius keep his oath? "Why?" Sirius moaned to himself. "Just why, oh, why did I make that foolish oath?"


_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _Somewhere in fifth_ _year_ _._

 _Event: 'May The Force Be With You'. Prompt_ _: (_ _character_ _)_ Luke Skywalker: Write about a character finding out they have a family member they did not know about _. 1000_ _words_ _._ _Gryffindor_ _,_ _Hogwarts_ _._

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sSsSsSsSs

 _ **STUCK BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE**_

sSs

Sirius Black was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Why?" He moaned to himself. "Just why, oh, why did I make that foolish oath?"

Regretfully, he couldn't answer that question.

"Well, it's not that anybody would know if I broke my vow," Sirius reasoned. "I just can put it back where I found it and ignore it… or I could burn it… yes, burn it so that there's no evidence that will remain and no way for others to find it!"

Sadly enough, burning it wouldn't erase the feeling of guilt that would stay with him if he didn't act on the knowledge he had gained.

"That's stupid," Sirius said to himself. "I hate my mother. I shouldn't even contemplate something that would please her…"

 _But the oath…_

"Oh, come on!" Sirius cried. "I swore that oath in a damn emotional moment! I wasn't thinking straight when I swore it! There's no way that it should count in any way or form!"

"Sirius?" a voice on the other side of the door suddenly spoke up. "Are you alright in there? The house didn't try to eat you, did it?"

"No," Sirius moaned. "I'm alright, Mooney. Nothing to worry about!"

 _If that statement would just be true…_

"Sirius," Remus Lupin's voice hadn't lost the concern it had held before. "Are you certain that –"

"I grew up in that house, Mooney!" Sirius barked, now a little bit annoyed. "I've also been stuck in that house for the whole summer already! There's no way that I would end up eaten by my ancestral home!"

For a moment nothing but silence answered him, then Remus sighed.

"I'm still not convinced that something didn't happen to you," he said. "You sound… _off_."

Well, Sirius had every right to sound off as much as he liked after the information he just stumbled upon inside the desk of his mother…

"I'm alright, Mooney," he said anyway. There was no way that he would talk with Remus about his find. Sirius knew how Remus would react.

"Go to Dumbledore," he would say. "He knows what to do."

"There are more important things right now," he'd say. "You can contemplate it after the war."

In the end, Remus would run to Dumbledore himself to ensure that Sirius would do as he said – and not one of those reactions was what Sirius needed right now.

No, Sirius needed to think – and he needed to decide without anyone else's influence. Especially not Dumbledore's influence. Sirius was disillusioned and bitter with the Headmaster and in no way or form would he decide to use or not to use that information with the help of the old goat.

Sirius could already guess what Dumbledore's advice would be if he'd ask.

"We can't tell him right now," he'd say. "His position is far too dangerous to distract him with something like that."

"You don't plan on telling him, do you, Sirius?" He'd say. "We both know that nothing good would come out of it considering your past interactions."

Maybe the Headmaster would even be right in his assessment. Maybe Sirius should just ignore and forget it.

 _Merlin!_

 _That was what Sirius wanted to do all along!_

But it was Sirius' decision – and he would consider every angle before he even thought about deciding.

That was the least he owed – if not himself and his oath – the man it concerned.

"Sirius?" Remus asked from outside the room.

Sirius sighed.

"I'm alright," he said before shrinking and hiding the documents he had found inside his pocket. He opened the door of the room he had been in and looked in the anxious face of his sole friend in the world.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," he apologized. "I just needed some space."

Remus' face showed his scepticism, but in the end he nodded.

"If you think so," he said slowly, before adding. "Molly has called for dinner. Are you coming?"

"I am," Sirius said and proceeded to follow Remus down into the kitchen.

He had a decision to make.

 _Brother or no brother?_

Sirius supressed a sigh.

Fourteen years ago after the death of Lily and James Sirius had vowed to never let down another brother again. Back then, he had had lost two brothers already – one of them Regulus and the other one James.

 _Sirius had vowed to never leave another one to fend for himself…_

 _But could he keep that vow?_

 _Could he accept another man as his brother and treat that man like one?_

 _On the other hand – could he, without any hesitation walk away from his vow and from the only chance he had to atone for his past mistakes?_

Sirius sighed and stared at Remus. He had already once thought of a friend the worst – _was he willing to continue this thought process with his own brother by blood?_

Before he could muse about the whole thing further, the kitchen door opened and Severus Snape entered the room, his robes billowing behind him.

Sirius watched the man.

While everybody else was solely concerned with the news Severus brought back from the Dark Lord, Sirius suddenly saw the dark circles beneath the other man's eyes. The man was pale, looked ready to drop dead and yet still willing to continue to work even far after the time he should have gone to bed.

It was as if Sirius saw the sour man for the first time…

It was then that he decided.

His left hand curled around the shrunken documents inside his pocket.

 _There was just one way he could live with himself without feeling guilty for the rest of his life…_

Sirius sighed and resigned himself to his fate.

sSs

" _My dear Walburga.  
I am surprised to hear that you found out that you were pregnant after all this time of thinking you were barren! Congratulations, my dear!_

 _As for your question about your heir: I am sorry to inform you that this will the last letter you will ever get from me. I know that the child I bear is technically not just mine, but yours and Orion's as well – but I can't bear the thought of being just the second mother to it. I am sorry, Walburga, but I have decided to take our child away from you and raise it as my own. I know, it's wrong, but I can't give it up even a bit to anybody else. You will never hear from this child ever again – but since you'll have another one way before this one is born, I don't think that you will grief too much._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Eileen Prince."_

sSs

Severus Snape was Sirius Black's brother – and it was Sirius' responsibility as the older brother to look out for the younger one.

Greasy git or not – Sirius had a brother to take care off.

He was not willing to accept a 'no' as an answer…

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 _Just a little idea_

 _Hope you liked it_

 _Ebenbild_


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